Urging safety, DOT reports 900-plus bike crashes per year

In honor of National Bicycle Safety Month in May, the state Department of Transportation wants to remind drivers to share the road.

Last week, Nancy Leidy, 60, died after police say a drunk driver hit her in Raleigh.

On Wednesday, a man was riding his bike at the corner of Millbrook and Falls of Neuse roads when he was hit by a car. He survived the crash, but it doesn’t always end that way.

Leidy was biking near Western Boulevard when North Carolina State University student Brian Reid hit her with his pickup truck, police said. Leidy later died at the hospital.

Reid was celebrating his 21st birthday and was drunk at the time of the crash, investigators said. He was charged with felony death by motor vehicle.

“There is no way I can forgive him for doing that, because he hurt a friend,” said Vince Foote, Leidy’s friend.

Most crashes between bicycles and vehicles in North Carolina happen between May and September, the state said.

In 2005, the most recent year for which data are compiled, there were 976 car-bike collisions reported.